HONOLULU – Behind a two-out rally in the sixth inning and a strong bullpen performance, the Hawai'i baseball team evened the series with Cal State Bakersfield Saturday with a 5-4 win.
The win secured career victory number 1,200 for head coach
Rich Hill, making him the 31st Division I coach all-time to reach that milestone. Hill is also the fifth active DI head coach – and the youngest among them – to reach the 1,200 career win mark.
Trailing 3-1 in the sixth, UH vaulted ahead with four two-out runs to make it 5-3.
Hunter Faildo got the scoring started when he beat out a bunt base hit to make it 3-2. After a walk,
Shunsuke Sakaino singled home Faildo to tie it, and
Ben Zeigler-Namoa delivered an RBI single and
Itsuki Takemoto a run-scoring double on consecutive pitches to put the 'Bows in front.
From there
Cory Ronan and
Freddy Rodriguez took it the rest of the way, with Ronan spinning a scoreless seventh and Rodriguez stranding two on in the eighth and limiting the Roadrunners to one two-out run in the ninth to lock it down. Ronan earned the win after pitching three shutout innings of relief with three strikeouts while Rodriguez got his second save throwing the final 1.2 frames.
The Rainbow Warriors struck first, scratching across a two-out run in the second. After a couple of singles with two away,
Jordan Donahue looped a base knock into left field to make it 1-0.
CSUB took the lead with a run in the fourth and two in the fifth to go up 3-1. An RBI single in the fourth tied it up with
Kamana Nahaku cutting down a potential second run at the plate, while a run-scoring groundout and single in the fifth gave the Roadrunners the lead.
Zeigler-Namoa continued his strong weekend with a 3-for-5 day with an RBI, and is now 7-for-10 with a pair of runs batted in on the series. Hawai'i scored all five of its runs with two outs in an inning and have scored 45.7 percent of runs with two gone in a frame. UH also hit .533 (8-for-15) with two outs on the afternoon and .385 (5-for-13) with runners in scoring position.
The two teams conclude the series Sunday at 1:05 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
